Who was voted out in Wednesday’s 12th episode of CBS’s “Survivor: Ghost Island”? This week featured the long-awaited loved ones visit, and the remaining players reacted accordingly by crying tears of joy. The final eight consisted of two original Malolo castaways (Donathan Hurley and Laurel Johnson) and six original Naviti contestants (Domenick Abbate, Kellyn Bechtold, Wendell Holland, Angela Perkins, Chelsea Townsend and Sebastian Noel), but how did new alliances stack up against old tribal lines?

Below, check out our minute-by-minute “Survivor: Ghost Island” recap of Season 36, Episode 12, titled “A Giant Game of Bumper Cars,” to find out what happened Wednesday, May 9. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite castaways, who annoys you the most, and who you think will ultimately join the “Survivor” winners list. Keep refreshing/reloading this live blog for the most recent updates.

7:59 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Survivor’!” During last week’s 11th episode there was a surprise double elimination as both Jenna Bowman and Michael Yerger were sent packing. Chelsea and Domenick won individual immunity necklaces for their groups, while Kellyn used her two-vote advantage and Donathan played his hidden idol. Heading into tonight’s episode Sebastian now has leading 8/5 odds to be eliminated, so let’s see if our readers’ prediction will come true.

8:00 p.m. – After tribal Kellyn had to come clean about her extra vote and having placed it on Laurel, who understood the move Kellyn made but it made her realize that everyone is in this game for themselves and that both Wendell and Domenick really do have her back.

8:11 p.m. – In the challenge they race through a series of obstacles collecting sandbags. Laurel and Chelsea take an early lead while Donathan and Angela fall behind. In the second stage they have to dig through the sand to create room to crawl under a log in order to get to a perch where they must toss their sand bag and land it on a small table. Sebastian is the first to begin tossing, but he’s unable to land his before Domenick makes his way to the final stage as well. After only a few tosses from Domenick, Sebastian is able to land his bag and win reward!

8:14 p.m. – As the winner, Sebastian gets to choose players and loved ones to join him on the picnic. His first choice is Domenick, then Wendell and last Donathan. That makes it an even split by genders–an interesting choice for him to have made. His final decision is to send someone to ghost island knowing for a fact that there is an advantage there. Sebastian chooses to not send himself which opens it up to one of the three men that he chose for his reward. Both Domenick and Donathan turn down the option, but Wendell chooses to forego the reward and head for the advantage instead.

8:20 p.m. – On ghost island Wendell finds a secret advantage: it’s a second chance advantage at the next immunity challenge, the same one that Malcolm Freberg got on season 25 and failed to use to his success and then was voted out. I’m not entirely sure that trip to ghost island was worth it!

8:22 p.m. – At the reward picnic, Domenick commits himself to his alliance with the guys, but Donathan is wary of the connection that Wendell, Domenick and Sebastian have. Meanwhile back at camp, Kellyn is riled up about the gender split at the reward. With Laurel present, Kellyn and Angela hatch a plan to have the four girls pull in Donathan to vote out either Wendell or Domenick in order to break up the boys, specifically that power duo. Laurel is in a tough spot because she thinks that the girls alliance can be mutually beneficial for her, but because she knows that both Domenick and Wendell have idols that it could possibly backfire and then she’d have turned on them.

8:28 p.m. – The immunity challenge this week is the same that Malcolm lost at–balancing a small ball wooden cylinder being held up by the pressure of two handles on opposite side. As the challenge progresses more cylinders will be added making it harder to keep them up.

8:31 p.m. – The first person out is Kellyn, dropping her ball a few minutes into the first section with only three cylinder pieces. After 10 minutes the other players add a fourth cylinder, but Angela fails to lift hers up in time (she’s out) and then Wendell drops, using his advantage for a second try.

8:32 p.m. – And then just like that Wendell drops again (!), wasting his advantage and eliminating himself from the challenge. The remaining five all advance to the final round where a fifth cylinder is added and they will not stop until there is one winner. In this round, Sebastian is the first to drop, leaving Chelsea, Domenick, Donathan and Laurel still competing.

8:34 p.m. – Laurel drops and then Chelsea drops, leaving a showdown between Domenick and Donathan. With both men showing some strain, Donathan drops and Domenick wins immunity once again! The stage is now set for Kellyn and the Naviti girls to attempt to pull in the Malolo two, Laurel and Donathan, to see if they can take out one of the two other guys.

8:40 p.m. – Domenick tells Wendell that at the reward he made a pact with Donathan and Sebastian to bring in Laurel in order to take out one of the challenge beasts–Chelsea. The girls are still hatching their own plan and Kellyn wants the target to be Wendell in order to break up him and Domenick. To get their plan to work they need Donathan who tells both Kellyn and Chelsea that he’s down to vote Wendell out.

8:42 p.m. – Wendell and Domenick put their trust in Laurel, but Wendell says he isn’t getting the same eye contact from Laurel that he usually does and so he might decide to use his idol tonight in order to counter the plan. Off on their own, Donathan and Laurel sit comfortably in the middle with the decision to choose between two sides. Their concern is that they know they have to stop Wendell and Domenick from steamrolling, but they aren’t convinced they can trust the girls alliance going forward and that the guys have idols.

8:50 p.m. – At tribal, Donathan opens up about the Naviti group shaking up and blatantly says that there is an opening in their group tonight. At that point, all the Naviti players perk up and they all pretend to not know what he’s talking about. The reality is that both sides (divided by gender) are looking to break up the Naviti alliance. And, again, Donathan opens his big mouth and says that it’s a gender divide. That is huge news to both sides because I’m not sure either side knew that the other side was planning their own coup.

8:54 p.m. – With not much else to discuss, the votes are cast and Jeff asks if anyone would like to play an idol… but no one does! Here are the votes: Wendell, Chelsea, Wendell, Chelsea, Wendell, Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea. Donathan and Laurel went with the boys! Ugh.

8:57 p.m. – So the prevailing alliance from here on out will likely be Domenick, Wendell, Laurel and Donathan with Sebastian as a fifth that they don’t really need anymore. I can’t imagine Kellyn and Angela have much wiggle room to make a move at this point.

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